Curtiss XP-87/XF-87 Blackhawk

Last revised September 29, 2015

The Curtiss XP-87 Blackhawk (Model 29A) was Curtiss's first (and only)
pure-jet aircraft. It was also the last aircraft to be produced by
the Curtiss company, marking an ignominious end for a corporation
which had been a household name in the annals of American aviation for
so many years.

The Curtiss-Wright Corporation, like all other American aircraft manufacturers, was hit hard by the massive cancellations that took place at the end of World War 2. Unfortunately, Curtiss had no projects that were readily applicable to the postwar civilian market, and none of its military aircraft fit in with postwar planning. Consequently, in 1946 Curtiss-Wright was forced to shut down all of its aircraft manufacturing plants except the government-owned plant in
Columbus, Ohio which had been built for it by the Navy for the purpose of SB2C Helldiver production. All units of the Aeroplane Divison of Curtiss-Wright were transferred to Columbus, and Curtiss-Wright valiantly tried to get back into the game.

Following the fabulously-successful P-40 series of fighters and the SB2C Helldiver carrier-based dive-bomber, Curtiss had gone through a long series of unsuccessful combat aircraft projects. Notable in this list of failures were the USAAF XP-46, P-60, and XP-62 projects, and the Navy XF14C, XBTC-2, and XBT2C-1 projects, none of which succeeded in attaining quantity production status. Nothing seemed to work for Curtiss; the company seemed to have run out of fresh, new ideas.

On March 23, 1945, the USAAF had announced a competition for an all-weather fighter bomber. It was generally pictured as being the successor to the Northrop P-61 Black Widow night fighter, and initially a piston-engined design was considered. However, the era of the piston-engined fighter was clearly at an end, and in December 1945 the requirement was changed to stipulate that the fighter-bomber was to be powered exclusively by jet engines. Bell, Consolidated-Vultee, Douglas, Goodyear, Northrop, and Curtiss-Wright all submitted proposals.

The Curtiss-Wright company had earlier submitted a proposal to the
Army known by the company as the Model 29. The jet-powered Model 29
had been designed specifically for the attack role, and the Army had
been sufficiently impressed that they had ordered two prototypes of
the design under the designation XA-43. To meet the jet-powered night
fighter requirement, Curtiss proposed an aircraft of a similar
configuration, but adapted specifically for the interception role.
The company designation of Model 29A was assigned to the project. The
Army ordered two prototypes under the designation XP-87 and the name
Blackhawk was assigned.

The USAAF initially favored the Curtiss proposal, if for no other
reason that the Curtiss-Wright factory would probably close down if it
did not win the order. In order to free up Curtiss-Wright for the
fighter project, the XA-43 project was cancelled on November 21, 1945,
and the funds and were transferred to the XP-87
project. The serial numbers 45-59600 and 45-59601 had been assigned to the XA-43
prototypes, and then that project was cancelled, the first XP-87 prototype was given
the serial 45-59600, but the second XP-87 was assigned the serial number 46-522.

The XP-87 was a large, all-metal, cantilever, mid-wing aircraft,
powered by four 3000 lb.st. Westinghouse XJ34-WE-7 turbojets paired
in two large pods mounted under the wings. The horizontal tailplane
was mounted halfway up the vertical tail. The aircraft was equipped
with a twin-track tricycle undercarriage. The pilot and radar
operator were seated side-by-side in a large, spacious cockpit.

The armament was initially to have been a pair of
automatically-operated nose and tail turrets, each containing a pair
of 0.50-inch machine guns. In addition, internally-mounted rockets
were to have been fitted. However, this was changed before
completion to a quartet of 20-mm cannon housed in a nose turret. This
nose turret was subcontracted to the Glenn L. Martin Company of
Baltimore. The turret was to be a moveable platform which would allow
the angle of fire to be varied at will. Firing angles ranging from
zero to 90 degrees from the centerline could be achieved.

The XP-87 had a gross weight of 49,000 pounds, and was one of the
heaviest Curtiss aircraft ever built, exceeded in weight only by some
variants of the C-46 Commando series of twin-engined transports.

In the immediate post-war period, Curtiss-Wright had only two military
designs in contention for production orders--the mixed-power XF15C-1
carrier-based fighter and the XP-87 two-seat night fighter. The
XF15C-1 lost out to the Ryan FR-1 Fireball for postwar production
orders from the Navy. The Blackhawk was Curtiss-Wright's only hope.

The prototype XP-87 (45-59600) was finally ready in early 1948. It
was trucked out to Muroc Dry Lake in March of 1948 for its first
flight. It took to the air for the first time on March 5, 1948.
Initial performance of the XP-87 (redesignated XF-87 in June 1948) was
promising, although the top speed was some twelve percent slower than
promised and there were some problems with buffeting at high speeds.
An order for 57 F-87A fighters and 30 RF-87A photographic
reconnaissance aircraft was placed on June 10, 1948.

Since the XP-87 had proven to be somewhat underpowered, the production
F-87As were to have been powered by two 6000 lb.st. General Electric
J47-GE-7 engines. Plans were made for the second XP-87 prototype
(46-522) to be fitted with a pair of these J47 turbojets as a
production prototype. It was redesignated XP-87A.

With the landing of the F-87 contract, it would seem that
Curtiss-Wright had finally begun to recover from its postwar doldrums.
However, the USAF concluded that the new Northrop XP-89 Scorpion
showed much more potential, and the F-87A order was cancelled in its
entirety on October 10, 1948. Work on the twin-engined XF-87A
version was halted before completion, and the machine was scrapped.

The loss of the F-87 contract was devastating for Curtiss-Wright. By this time, the had completely run out
of fresh ideas, and had finally reached the end of the line. With no orders forthcoming from the military,
and with nothing even remotely promising for the civil market, Curtiss-Wright was forced to shut down its
entire Aeroplane Division. All of the Aeroplane Division's assets were soon sold to North American Aviation, and
the government-owned plant at Columbus reverted back to the Navy.

The Columbus plant sat idle for a couple of years, but was re-opened by North American Aviation in the early
1950s for the production of F-86 Sabres.